Andy Mak

20th February 2017

MegaBox

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In the penultimate game of the season before the playoff, the injury-ridden Bear Fighters fielded a mere 8 players in their game against the best team in Regular Division, Zerve Spartans.

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While the under-strength Bears would have been easy pickings for the Spartans, the action was equal on both end of the ice in the first 5 minutes, with the players working hard to make up for the numerical disadvantage.

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Not long after, Zerve forward Corey Kinakin put his team ahead under fortuitous circumstances.

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While his intention was to center a pass from the left, the puck ended up deflecting off of Bears defenseman Adrian’s stick, completing wrong-footing goalie Andy into the net.  

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Bears then surged forward in search of the equalizer but were foiled time and time again by Zerve goalie Kevin Lam, who stood strong to halt our breakaway and other attempts on goal.

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The strain of having to keep up began take its toll on the undermanned Bears and on the 14th minute mark, Corey tried a centering pass and this time found Peter Lam at the slot area, who made it 2 – 0  for Zerve.

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Starting the 2nd period with a 2-goal deficit, the Bears were nonetheless undeterred and came out all guns blazing, but found themselves up against a very much in-form Kevin Lam, who would register his 8th shutout of the season. 

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The game reached its boiling point 10 minutes later, when Josh crossed the blueline before his teammate carried the puck and was clearly offside on the play and the referee decided against an offside call.

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Adrian was surprised by the decision and became entangled with Josh on the blueline, who ended up smashing into the end board. This did not go down well with the referee and Adrian was called for cross checking.

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Goalie Andy was furious about the call because the Zerve player was clearly off side and Adrian had his arms in the air at that point, meaning that he could not have two hands on his stick as the referee suggested.

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With the Bears captain and basically their best defenseman in the box for 2 mins penalty, leaving only 3 players on the bench and 4 on the ice, Zerve took a minute to score the Power Play goal (PPG) and took a commanding 3 – 0 lead.

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Another of the Bears’ defensemen, Jo Ma, did not hesitate in voicing his opinion about the referee's decisions, perhaps too much so for his own good and was sent off for 2 minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct.   

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Although Bears did snuff out another Zerve penalty, a further but with 2 penalties, a limited bench and tired legs killed the game as a contest and the Spartans scored 2 more in the last 4 minutes of the period to seal the deal.  Bears last game will be against the young Raptors team on Mar 26th.

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Next Fixture:

March 26th

Bears Fighters vs Raptors

11.00 pm

MegaBox